Long Son petrochemical complex to begin commercial operation in Q3

The Long Son Petrochemicals Co. Ltd. (LSP) has announced that its Long Son petrochemical complex in the southern province of Ba Ria - Vung Tau is on track to begin commercial operation in the third quarter of 2024, as per Vietnamplus.

Since November 2023, LSP has been conducting comprehensive trial runs across the entire complex, encompassing both the upstream Olefins plant and the three downstream Polyolefin plants.

It is the first fully integrated petrochemical complex in Vietnam, which has been built in Long Son commune of Vung Tau city since February 28, 2018. With a total investment of about 5.4 billion USD, it has a designed capacity of 1.4 million tonnes of olefin resin per year, aimed at producing a variety of petroleum products, including essential raw materials for the plastics industry such as polyethylene, polypropylene and other related products. This initiative is intended to reduce reliance on imported polyolefin products and improve the competitiveness of downstream manufacturers in the domestic market.

The complex boasts a quality workforce of around 1,000 employees, with 80% being Vietnamese. Once put into commercial operation, it will generate stable jobs for 10,000 workers and contribute an estimated 2.5 trillion VND (104.1 million USD) to the State budget annually.

In 2018, Thailand’s Siam Cement Group acquired a 29% stake in the project from the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam), ultimately securing full ownership with a 100% stake.

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KBR announced that its Purifier ammonia technology was selected by Wuhuan Engineering Co. Ltd. for the expansion of El Nasr Company for Intermediate Chemicals’ fertilizer complex in Egypt, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Under the terms of the contract, KBR will provide the technology license, proprietary engineering design and proprietary equipment for NCIC’s 1,200 metric tons per day ammonia plant.

“We are pleased to be a part of this project and support El Nasr Company for Intermediate Chemicals’ growth in the fertilizer sector by providing our sustainable and superior Purifier technology,” said Jay Ibrahim, President, KBR Sustainable Technology Solutions. “KBR’s Purifier process is an energy-efficient and reliable solution for ammonia producers. Furthermore, with a lower carbon footprint compared to other more conventional ammonia technologies, KBR’s Purifier ammonia process helps customers meet their sustainability goals in a cost-effective manner.”

We remind, KBR announced it has been awarded a project management contract by Sonangol for the design and construction of a new 200,000bpd refinery in Lobito, Angola. Under the terms of the contract, KBR will provide services encompassing the project management of engineering, procurement and construction phase execution.

KBR is a world leader in ammonia technology and has been at the forefront of innovation in the ammonia market for decades. Since 1943, KBR has licensed, engineered, or delivered more than 250 grassroot ammonia plants worldwide.

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SIBUR is considering the possibility of implementing a polystyrene production project with capacity of 250,000 tonnes per year with completion of construction no later than 2028, according to company materials seen by Interfax.

Earlier, the company's executive director Alexander Petrov said that several options are being considered for processing ethylene produced at the EP-600 complex under construction at Nizhnekamskneftekhim , including production of styrene and polystyrene.

SIBUR is due to begin production at the EP-600 ethylene complex in Tatarstan in November 2024.

The launch of the EP-600 complex will allow SIBUR to increase polyethylene output by 150,000 tonnes at Kazanorgsintez after reconstruction, SIBUR chief Mikhail Karisalov said. In addition, some of the new ethylene volumes will be used as feedstock in the hexene production chain, a unit for the production of which SIBUR is already building in Nizhnekamsk. At the same time, some of the ethylene volumes from EP-600 have not yet been distributed among further processing projects, he said.

In addition to the existing ethylene production with capacity of 600,000 tonnes, NKNC is building a new olefin complex - the EP-600 ethylene unit with polymer production. EP-600 will allow for processing of 1.8 million tons of straight-run gasoline per year to produce 600,000 tonnes of ethylene and its derivatives.

Nizhnekamskneftekhim is one of the largest producers of synthetic rubbers in the world and of plastics in Russia, and has been a part of SIBUR since October 2021.

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U.S. manufacturers specializing in chemicals and petroleum refining have traditionally accounted for the largest shares of both hydrogen consumption and production, and they pay the least for it, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

With new legislation, we expect changes to how hydrogen is consumed and distributed in the country.

EIA’s Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey (MECS) data are collected and published every four years and remain the only nationally representative source of estimates of energy-related characteristics, consumption, and expenditures for manufacturing establishments in the United States. These data are critical to measuring energy intensity and understanding efficiency gains or losses within manufacturing.

We are currently collecting MECS data for 2022, and we expect to publish them beginning in the summer of 2025 through spring 2026.

Refiners, which make up much of the petroleum and coal products subsector under the North American Industry Classification System, and chemicals manufacturers tend to have more buying power than other manufacturing subsectors because they use more hydrogen. On average in 2018, the chemicals subsector paid $6.18 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) for hydrogen, and the petroleum and coal products subsector paid $6.77/MMBtu, according to the MECS data published in 2021. In the MECS, we report the average price of hydrogen purchased by manufacturing establishments for use in their on-site operations.

We remind, the Russian Industry and Trade Ministry expects manufacturing output could grow at least 5% if current trends persist in 2024, Denis Manturov, deputy prime minister and Russia's industry and trade minister, told reporters. The Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) has said manufacturing sector output grew 7.5% year-on-year in January, accelerating to 13.5% in February. Manufacturing grew 7.5% in 2023.

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Russia's Lukoil has acquired a 50% stake in Kalamkas-Khazar Operating LLP (KKO) for $200 million, according to the 2023 financial report of Kazakhstan's National Company KazMunayGas (KMG), Interfax.

On February 9, 2023, KMG and Lukoil PJSC signed a purchase and sale agreement for a 50% share of KKO, a subsidiary of KMG, the holder of a contract for the production of hydrocarbons at the Kalamkas-Sea, Khazar and Auezov subsoil blocks located in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea, according to the report.

On September 11, 2023, KKO was reregistered after the parties fulfilled the suspensive conditions of a purchase and sale agreement. As a result of the transaction, KMG lost control over KKO.

The sale price of the 50% share in KKO was 200 million USD (equivalent to 93,258 million tenge at the date of disposal of the subsidiary).

Lukoil PJSC made payment of cash consideration in the amount of 200 million USD on September 21, 2023.

In September 2023, KMG and Lukoil completed procedures for the sale of a 50% stake in Kalamkas-Khazar Operating LLP to Lukoil.

"KMG and Lukoil have closed the deal, as a result of which Lukoil has acquired a 50% stake in Kalamkas-Khazar Operating LLP," the company told Interfax in September of last year.

KMG and Lukoil now own Kalamkas-Khazar Operating, which is the operator of the Kalamkas Sea, Khazar and Auezov project in the Caspian Sea, on a parity basis.

On February 9, 2023 KazMunayGas and Lukoil signed a number of agreements relating to the development of the Kalamkas Sea, Khazar and Auezov blocks in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea, including an agreement on the sale and purchase of a 50% holding in the charter capital of Kalamkas-Khazar Operating LLP and an agreement on terms and conditions for the financing of the project by its participants.

Kalamkas-Sea, Khazar and Auezov fields lie offshore the Caspian Sea about 60 km away from the coast and at a depth of 7-9 meters. The production is expected to start in 2028 and will total 3-4 million tonnes per year. The development costs are estimated at about $5 billion.

Kalamkas-Sea, which was discovered in 2002, is located 120 km southwest of Kashagan and very close to the Khazar field. The combined recoverable reserves of the Kalamkas-Sea and Khazar fields are estimated at 67 million tonnes of oil and 9 billion cubic meters of gas.

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